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Monday, July 08, 2013

Why People Are Leaving The Republican Party

Conservatives and people of faith have traditionally felt their most important social issues were best represented by the Republican Party, consequently, most---not all, but most conservatives and people of faith have identified with the GOP.

However, recently those people have begun to feel disaffiliated with the Party. While the Party has sustained a series of political losses in the presidential races and at home in Washington State, the defection, I believe, is about more than merely loosing an election, or 2 or 3.

Winning elections, for absolute certain, is very important to the political process, however there is another component that I have sensed in talking with fellow Republicans in recent years.

Many had hoped that the RNC would find some instructive conclusions in their "Growth and Opportunity Project" study earlier this year.

It didn't happen. Essentially, many felt the study was 100 pages of nothing.

A new study was released last week by Frontier Labs, an independent market research firm. They researched why people are disassociating with the GOP. Their findings will not be surprising, except perhaps to the GOP leadership.

The RNC study concluded that the GOP needed to appeal to more young people and minorities, particularly Hispanics in order to start winning elections.

There was also a reoccurring notion that the Party must push back from some of the more "divisive" social issues.

Translated: "Divisive"= Abortion and traditional, biblical marriage.

However the study just completed by Frontier Lab, "Switching Behavior: Modeling Disaffiliation From Republican Brand" disagrees with the assumptions made by the RNC and their study panel.

Unlike the RNC study that was created by consultants, political figures and focus groups, Frontier applied scientific methodology from market research.

Anne Sorook, who authored the report says the RNC's self examination was a "perfect example of everything they are doing wrong."

The Frontier Lab study identified 4 specific reasons people are disaffiliating with the GOP.

1 . A rejection of the motive to vote Republican by voting for "the lessor of two evils."

We have seen this repeatedly in Washington State and at the national level.

2. Loss of Hope.

There is a sense that the Party can no longer deliver on its promises because Party leaders have abandoned their principles (and the Party platform).

3. "Affiliation with a new community."

People feel there is no longer a "camaraderie" in the Party. They are finding more meaningful associations and relationships in other communities, i.e. Tea Party, talk radio, smaller political parties, etc.4 . A perceived betrayal by the GOP establishment.

Karl Rove, who, by most opinions, represents the "mainstream" Republican effort, has said recently that we need to "support the most conservative candidate we deem electable."

Who decides who is electable? The Party leadership. They decided Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney were electable.

The Washington State Republican Party demonstrated this belief in the last election. They wholeheartedly supported the moderate to liberal Republicans who ran for state and Congressional office. Their losses were humiliating. Wasn't even close.

Many, myself included, felt Republican John Koster could have won the First Congressional District last election if the state and national Republican Party would have supported him. Even the Seattle Times said he was highly qualified but would not endorse him because he is pro-life and pro-marriage.

What an indictment.

Why would a secular progressive Democrat vote for a left leaning Republican pro-abortion candidate when the Democratic Party offers them the real thing?

They didn't vote for them. And neither did a large number of evangelicals and conservative, pro-life, pro-marriage Catholics. And they won't in the future.

We were told the Republican candidate was the "lessor of two evils."

Hopefully, the GOP can be exorcised from their obsession with unsuccessfully running moderate to left leaning candidates while telling 70 million evangelicals and millions of pro-life Catholics to vote for the "lessor of two evils" so the Republican Party can win.

Breaking news: Most of us are not involved in the political process for the cause of a Party---any party.

We are involved because we love our country and we have deeply held biblical beliefs---specifically Faith, Freedom, Family and the sanctity of life.

Just a thought. I wonder if we could not find a candidate who personally believes in and adheres to the Republican Party platform, is articulate, a capable leader and a person of character who would not "evolve" once in Washington DC or Olympia?

Call me out of touch, but I think there are those kinds of people in our state and in our country.

What if the GOP actually got behind such a person with sweat and money, and stopped trying to deceive progressive voters into voting for someone who is almost like them, but not entirely like them, because the candidate is a member of the Republican political party, but does not agree with the values stated in the Republican party's platform?

Why is this so complicated?

Better days are ahead.Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Bold. Be Blessed.

17 comments:

The Republican party has been ruined because its party and elected officials have been subverted by corruption, cowardice, ignorance, and sloth. Most of its Congressional members timidly go along to get along, giving us the dangerous illusion of choice. In response to our nation's crises, their silence is deafening. Their plans are generally too little, too late. They vote for some bills that enslave us, and some that don't. They pass illegal laws that give unfair advantages and vast profits to a select few of their supporters. They smear conservative challengers, who try to stop their corruption, as extreme or unelectable, meaning they don't want them to win, or won't help them to win. They arrogantly criticize conservatives at the meetings and events they rarely attend when we try to hold them accountable. They oppose conservative archetypes that are necessary for our survival. They don't reply to our calls, emails, or letters. Some have obscenely large and suspicious campaign funding. They recruit the naive through "leadership training" to perpetuate their pillaging cliques. Who in their right minds would support such snakes?

No more peacocks or empty suits. This party can be reformed, but that would take decades. We simply don't have decades to prevent America's destruction by the domestic enemy Obama and his insurgents. Now, We The People, as individuals, must fight to save the nation Republican party officials and elected officials betrayed.

Progressive Republicans (RINOs) try to justify their betrayals with, "I was only doing it to get elected." That's the peacetime equivalent of, "I was only following orders." This Nuremberg Defense of deflecting responsibility has long been rejected when moral choices are available. Good men who refuse to fight evil become evil. Good men who put the expediency of winning elections over doing what is right also become evil. The extent of their evil is proportional to the degree their (in)actions degrade the exercise of our God-given unalienable rights. Get the picture? It must be the right way or the highway. The right way has always been morally courageous citizens -- We The People.

Political parties are threatening our nation as our Founding Fathers feared. Parties have been co-opted by oligarch lackeys and must be purged or avoided as necessary. In the meantime, all we need to know is whether a candidate or cause supports God-given unalienable rights, the U.S. Constitution, Christendom, and Western civilization. It's always been principle over party...or gang. With social media, parties have thankfully become obsolete and We The People, using ad hoc alliances, have a chance to save America. Pray, fight, and win.

I agreed with everything in this article until you started talking disrespectfully of our current president. You can dislike his politics, but you need to respect the president. I was a Republican, and their antics and their hatefulness forever turned me away. I am happily a Christian and a Democrat. I used to vote Republican, no matter what, believing it the lesser of two evils, since I am against abortion. But I have concluded that in the the end, the Dems are more in line with what Jesus taught, caring for the poor and less fortunate, looking out for social injustices. I will probably NEVER go back. It is prob,ably too late for the Republicans, and I am so ashamed I was ever one of them.

The GOP and a lot of conservatives have put aside their beliefs to vote for "lessor of 2 evils". If we loose the fight altogether we are in big trouble and the country will go to a one party system and we know what party that will be. Pray, fight and win are good suggestion but also get involved...go to the local tea party, pick up a sign in protest, make your voice heard even if it is just an email to your congressman. We are conservatives not what Microsoft thesaurus now defines conservative:Cautious-unprogressive-unchanging-inflexible- and obstinate. Rather we believe in the Constitution and Biblical principles to govern our nation. Yes the government is run by imperfect men and this will never change until the Lord returns but we put those men in office and have made some very bad decisions about the processes of elections. We do not hold our appointed leaders to accountability. It is not a government "of the people by the people" but we elect substandard delegates and step away from the process. These people do not care any longer about their constituents, only about what benefits THEM financially during their term and how to get reelected. What kind of representation is that? Voting is an ongoing responsibility- choose good candidates, get them elected by prayer and due diligence and then stay involved and make sure they represent those campaign promises. If they do not uphold our beliefs crusade to get them removed- make examples of them so all Reps, Congressman, Senators AND PRESIDENTS know that we will not stand for second rate leadership. After all we are still a country of God fearing Christians and we need to remember that before we loose anymore ground. God Bless America!!!!

I'd like to invite anyone who feels disenfranchised with the GOP to look into the Republican Liberty Caucus here in Washington State. Solidly Pro-Constitution and Pro-Liberty. We mean to energize and influence the Republican Party.

The issue that I have with the RLC is that there are three things that are "ESSENTIAL" in order for it to succeed.

1 - The RLC "Must" establish an objective standard of Biblical and Constitutional principles that candidates are measured by. Candidates "Must" be required to meet at least a minimum level of adherence to that standard (say 90%) with 100% adherence on a few key principles (life, marriage, property, etc).

2 - The RLC and all supporters "Must" pledge to support only candidates who have met the RLC's minimum criteria. The RLC and all supporters "Must" pledge to withhold all support (time, talent and money) from the RNC, and even the state party, until they adopt the RLC's slate of candidates and give all financial support those, and only those, candidates.

3 - The RLC and its supporters "Must" pledge to withhold not only their support, but also their vote from any candidate that has not met the minimum standard and received the RLC's stamp of approval. This "Must" be done, not only in the primary election, but also in the general.

The only thing that the Republican Party establishment powers that be understand, is power. Short of a mass spiritual rebirth, renewal, repentance and awakening to righteousness, the only thing that will influence the party bosses and power brokers who are pulling the strings, is to be threatened with the loss of power and the only way they will take the threat seriously is if those who they rely on as a base of support prove this is not a bluff.

Time and again, Tea Parties or other conservative uprisings have stood up on their hind legs and said "we're not going to take it any more." Yet each one has been co-opted and led back into the Republican fold by the establishment shoving their man down the throats of the people at the primary election, then telling the people that only their establishment man can save them from the big bad Democrat in the general election. Until the people prove to the establishment powers that they would rather loose an election than to lose their virtue by compromising their Biblical and Constitutional values, then the party bosses will recognize they still have the people over a barrel that we'll let them have their way with us so long as they promise to save us from the Democrats.

I was finished with the "R" party back in 1996 when I attended a Republican caucus and saw what a sham the process was. It was clear that the "conservative" people who made up the bulk of the party wanted Pat Buchanan, but they all voted in Bob Dole because it was understood that was who the party leadership wanted - "it's his turn - so now we've got to get behind him so he can win." I've had nothing to do with the "R" party ever since and the "R" party has never proven me wrong in leaving.

In every election, the Christian-conservative-right has let the party leaders tell them which is the favored candidate - the anointed son. They line up and support that candidate despite the fact that he represents almost nothing that Christians and conservatives profess to stand for. When these compromised candidates loose, conservatives weep and mourn that "the evil liberals defeated us and now there will be four years of bad government." When the "R" party's anointed sons win and seize the reins of power, the conservatives rejoice that "we have delivered ourselves from evil," but all of the evil, unbiblical and unconstitutional policies remain in place, funding continues to flow to unconstitutional and immoral agencies and programs and the debt never ceases to grow. Why? Because that's the way the "R" party leadership wants it and the conservative sheeple follow them to the slaughter because they have become more committed to party, and to winning at the ballot box, than to principle.

I predict that nothing will change until we who call ourselves Christian and conservative rediscover the virtues and values of America's founders, commit ourselves to principle before party and start raising up and voting for men of Christian virtue and Constitutional value without regard for party label and without regard for who we are told "can win."

Contrary to how we as Christians have come to act, 1 Samuel 2:30 says "for them that honour me I will honour" not "for them that compromise in order to win I will honour." (if you're interested, you can find my full treatise on this topic here http://bobpeck.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/ichabod-the-real-message-of-the-2012-elections/)

By the way, I don't want anyone to think I've just been sitting on the political sidelines since walking away from the "R" party. For over a decade now I've been putting in an average of 2,000 hours per year of unpaid volunteer activism in Christian and Constitutional causes, helping Constitutionally sound candidates, promoting educational classes and mostly working to provide an alternative to the establishment party monopoly by serving in the Constitution Party.

No, Gary Randall, you are not out of touch. I don't think, I KNOW from personal experience that "there are those kinds of people in our state and in our country." I work with them every day in my state and national leadership positions with the Constitution Party. It is why the Constitution Party exists, to provide a home and platform for those who are committed to God-Family-Republic, in that order. As national communications director as well as WA State Vice-chairman/Communications Director, I have heard the same things you are saying, over and over and over since 2004. I KNOW that in Washington State we have a handful of Republican legislators who are holding the line against all odds. I KNOW that the Republican Party shamefully turned its back on its most constitutionally-correct candidate for governor, Shahram Hadian, among several others. It was a very painful election in 2012. I KNOW because I ran for Secretary of State for the Constitution Party and watched the struggle as it was happening, taking the phone calls, and talking to people at campaign events and in interviews.

The real truth of the matter is that we have reached the tipping point in our nation, where those who want all the goodies the federal government promises to give them out-numbers those who adhere to Biblical and Constitutional principles who are committed to standing for those principles at all times and in all things and in all places, especially the political sphere which affects not only the living, but future generations. The only true hope is "a turning of the hearts of the children to [the principles of] their fathers," as their hearts were turned to us, their posterity, to paraphrase the prophet Malachi.

Maybe it's time for a little shock treatment by breaking up the older order of things. Worked in 1776. We can reset our Republic,if we, as a people, find the moral courage to do so. Our door is always open.

Bob is right on. Hopefully this article will be passed on to every "R" in the state. People of our Founders moral values (10 Commandments) must take a stand NOW - not in the next election year. STOP feeding the beast - NO money to the GOP - donate directly to your candidate, and let the GOP know how you think.

In Spokane County the GOP is again in the hands of establishment henchmen who have control because of a split board that include morally deprived Libertarians who do not understand the meaning of "LIFE, liberty and Property", emphasis on life. These are the new commers to politics, the members of the RLC - who, at this time appear to be another co-opted smokescreen for the RNC.

I do not understand the preoccupation with abortion and marriage. They are both moral and or spiritual issues that the gomerment ought to have nothing to do with.

Abortion is a terrible thing, but once the woman decides to have one the battle is lost. What are you going to do, shoot her, as you would if she was going to kill a child out side her body? Perhaps create a federal Department of Womb Security modeled after the Department of Homeland Security or the Drug Enforcement Agency. The solution is moral education. The murder of the child is anathema, but so is being born to a mother who wants to murder you. It appears to be an excellent way to create sociopathic kids who will be a longer term problem to society.

According to the more articulate women I have spoken to; they think abortion is terrible and did not consider having one themselves but can not make that decision for others. They also have an aversion to gomerment or bunch of old white men telling them what to do with their body. It is a woman issue. Men ought to pay attention to what they do with their own bodies and that is the most polite way I can put it.

Marriage is something the gomerment should have nothing to do with. For me it is a spiritual matter between me, my wife, and our families. George Washington never had a marriage license. The first marriage licenses were given out in the mid-1800s when some states began allowing interracial marriage, so long as the couple received a marriage license. Without the license interracial marriage was illegal.

So far as the State or gomerment is concerned they could register contracts and I should be able to have a contract for division of assets, who can visit my death bed or whatever the fuss is about with my mother, my father, my sister, my brother or my friend of either sex. Anything beyond that is a ridicules invasion of privacy. No one should be forced to participate with any contract they are not a party to nor expect to have the state force anyone to perform tasks as a consequence of that contract.

The state or the gomers in gomerment are not capable of anything else.

I registered with the Republican Party on my 21st birthday in 1967 because at that time the GOP best represented the Judeo-Christian values upon which this country was founded and which formed the basis of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Shortly before my 67th birthday in 2013 I left the Republican Party and joined the Constitution Party, which now best represents the principles that the GOP stood for in 1967.

With the rare exception of a very small handful (perhaps a dozen) of Senators and Representatives and about the same number of governors and former governors, the Republican Party has totally abandoned America's First Principles and the Bible upon which they were formed. They have embraced the anti-God, Anti-American, anti-Liberty Progressive Socialist agenda of the Democratic Party and the Communist Party USA. There is now no practical ideological difference between the DNC, GOP, and CPUSA!

The real reason the GOP is falling apart? Information transfer. Realize this, all the myths that the right likes to constantly dish out against non believers, homosexuals, abortion, etc. You are spitting in peoples faces. They have friends and family members who are all contrary to this Right wing view. As much as people WANT to believe in mythical deities, the lives of their family members mean more.

You want to say you are family orientated, yet you'll destroy a family if the son/daughter is gay. OR you will create untold amounts of mental trauma trying to "cure" them.

The GOP is like an antique car. You're cute to look at from time to time, but definitely NOT a competitor. People are getting sick of your nonsense.

I agreed with everything in this article until you started talking disrespectfully of our current president. You can dislike his politics, but you need to respect the president. I was a Republican, and their antics and their hatefulness forever turned me away. I am happily a Christian and a Democrat. I used to vote Republican, no matter what, believing it the lesser of two evils, since I am against abortion. But I have concluded that in the the end, the Dems are more in line with what Jesus taught, caring for the poor and less fortunate, looking out for social injustices. I will probably NEVER go back. It is prob,ably too late for the Republicans, and I am so ashamed I was ever one of them.